Picker for textile fibers



Feb- 2 1942. F. A. CONLEY 4, 0

PIGKER FOR TEXTILEFIBERS n Filed Aug. 28, l940 v 2 Sheets-Sheet J.

Feb. 24, 1942. L 2,274,360

PICKER FOR TEXTILE FIB ERS Filed Aug. 28, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 lnarezz'l'or Patented Feb. 24, 1942 PICKER FOR TEXTILE FIBERS Fred A. Conley, Lowell, Mass, assignor to Saco- Lowell Shops, Boston, Mass., a corporation of Maine A pplicatiofi August 28, 1940, Serial No. 354,592

6 Claims.

This invention relatesto machines designed more especially for picking long, relatively smooth fibers, such as those composed of rayon.

Attempts to use cotton pickers for this purpose have demonstrated that while they can handle the shorter fibers very satisfactorily, they give considerable trouble with longer fibers, say an inch and a half or more in length.

The present invention aims to devise a picker which will handle these longer lengths of smooth silky fibers satisfactorily and at high rates of production.

The nature of the invention will be readily understoodfrom the following description when read in connection with the accompanying drawings, and the novel features will be particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

' In the drawings, M

Figure 1 is a vertical, longitudinal, view of a picker organized in accordance with this invention;

Fig. 2 is a transverse, the beater of the machine shown in Fig. 1;'

Fig. 3 is a front view, partly broken away, of

one section of said beater;

Fig. 4 is a vertical, sectional view ofthe beater i section shown in Fig. 3; and

Fig. 5 is a side elevation of a beater pin of the preferred form.

Referring first to Fig. 1, the machine there sectional sectional view through shown is organized in much the same manner as a cotton picker of the common commercial forms.

That is, it includes a rotary beater 2 mounted in a casing 3 in cooperative relationship to a condenser 4 of a common form. The suction required for the operation of the condenser is furnished by a blower 5, and the sheet formed on the condenser screens is discharged by delivery rolls 6. Also, the fiber to be picked may be fed to the machine in the same manner and by the rearward side of the beater around the latter and same mechanisms as those commonly employed for this purpose in connection with cotton pickers. A portion of such an arrangement is illustrated, somewhat diagrammatically, in Fig. 1. It comprises a feed lattice 1, a press roll 8 cooperating therewith at the delivery end of the 5 In the machine illustrated the usual bar beater is replaced by a pin beater 2 connected by a belt [4 to a motor, or is driven in any other convenient manner, in such a direction that the pins of the beater pick the fiber from the feed rolls I3 in an upward direction. As the fiber is carried over the upper part of the beater and backwardly toward the rear of the machine, it is discharged from the pins, partly by centrifugal force and partly through the influence of air currents designed to accomplish this result. For this purpose a grid I5 is positioned in the casing immediately above the feed rolls l3 where it ad mits a current of air created by the blower 5 which sweeps across the top of the beater, thus picking up the fiber and carrying it rearwardly to the rotary condenser cylinders or. screens 4;. There it is screened outof the air stream in the usual manner and the sheet so formed is dis charged by the delivery rolls 6.

In addition to the air stream so guided into cooperative relationship with the beater, air also flows through the grating [6 into the chamber below the beater and around the rearward edge of a curved shield H. Exactly what becomes of this air may not be clearly understood, but some of it doubtless is carried around thebeater in a counter-clockwise direction past the picking point where it assists in the operation of strip ping the fiber from the pins, while some of it very likely also escapes upwardly past the front edge of the "partition plate or cut-off plate I8 and joins the air carrying fiber to the condenser screens.

The shield ll extends continuously from the approximately to the lower of the feed rolls l3. It protects the lower half of the beater from air currents that otherwise would be troublesome and assists in directing such currents into useful paths. Preferably'the clearance or spacing of the shield with reference to the ends of the pins is made relatively wide at the rearward side of the beater and is gradually reduced to little more than running limits at the feed roll. The coni trol of the air currents afforded by this arrangement is an important feature in the successful operation of the machine.

A particularly difiicult problem has been'to devise a beater that will pick these long fibers successfully without excessive breakage and withof pins has proved to be the most successful solution for this problem. Such a beater may conveniently be made up of sections in the manner illustrated in Figs. 2, 3 and 4, each section including a suitable number of pins. The type of pin which has proved most successful is the bullet nose form shown at 20 in Fig. 5. This pin has a cylindrical body, a thin head at one end,

and a sharply tapered but somewhat rounded end portion or nose simulating closely the shape of a modern high power rifle bullet.

These pins are set in segmental wooden sectionsZ' with their end portions projecting for,

say, three-quarters of an inch, or thereabouts, beyond the outer surfaces of the segments. The segments may be lagged together and supported in and secured to suitable cylinder heads. Aconvenient arrangement is to mount six horizontal rows of these pins in a single section. A typical spacing between rows is approximately a half or nine-sixteenths of an inch, and the axial spacing of the pins in each row is in the neighborhood of three-quarters of an inch between centers. Also, the pins areso staggered or echeloned as to present their points at the most frequent longitudinal intervals commensurate with the number of pins employed. As shown, most of the pins are so positioned that the path of travel of each of them overlaps, but does not register with, those of pins immediately in front of and behind it. Naturally this circumferential spacing of the rows of pins will vary with the speed of rotation of the cylinder since somewhat the same effect on the work produced by a variation in circumferential spacing may be substantially duplicated by a change in speed. The axial spacing, however, is more of a fixed quantity and that above described has proven very satisfactory.

In connection with the beater structure and its action on the fiber, it may also be pointed out that the action of the air stream entering the casing immediately above the upper feed roll I3 is extremely important in the operation of the machine. As the fibers are picked from the feed rolls they are flipped upward by the pins and would get out of control and curl around the upper feed roll if it were not for the action of the strong current of air flowing inwardly through the grating l5 and across the top of the beater. This air stream seems to lay the fibers on the pins and it is a very important factor in keeping them under control as they are carried around the beater to a discharging point at the rearward side thereof.

The picker organization above described has been found in practice to handle the longer lengths of rayon staple commonly used in the textile industry, such for example as an inch and a half or two inch stock, very satisfactorily. In

bination of a horizontal beater of approximately cylindrical form with its circumferential surface studded with pins set in regular order, feed rolls positioned adjacent to said cylinder for feeding loosely associated fibers to said heater to be picked thereby, means for revolving said beater in a direction to cause it to pick the fibers upwardly from said feed rolls, a condenser behind said beater, a casing enclosing said beater and condenser, means for creating a current of air across the top of said beater and through said condenser to carry the picked fibers backwardly away from said beater and to screen them out of the air stream, said casing including parts admitting air to said beater immediately above the feed rolls and at a point adjacent to the ole scending rearward side of the beater, and a shield extending continuously from said point, under the beater, closely adjacent to the surface thereof and to a point closely adjacent to said feed rolls.

2. In a textile fiber picking machine, the combination of a pin beater, mechanism for feeding fibers to said beater to be picked thereby, means for revolving said beater in a direction to cause it to beat the fibers upwardly, means for creating a current of air across the top of said beater Where it will carry the beaten fibers backwardly away from the beater, means for screening the fibers out of saidair current and discharging them, a casing enclosing saidbeater and controlling the air currents between said beater and said screening means, and a continuous shield curved around approximately the lower half of said beater, said casing including a partition cooperating with said shield to admit a limited fiow of air around the rearward edge of said shield and on to the beater.

3. In a textile fabric picking machine, the combination of a horizontally disposed rotary beater of the pin type, mechanism for feeding cotton to said beater to be picked thereby, means for revolving said beater in a direction to cause it to beat the fibers upwardly away from the picking point, a condenser behind said beater, a casing enclosing said beater and condenser, and a blower associated with said beater and condenser to create a current of air serving to carry fibers from said beater to said condenser where they will be screened out of the air stream by the condenser, said casing having an opening admitting air to the beater immediately above the fact, it produces better results with these stocks than do the ordinary cotton pickers with cotton staple of the more common commercial dimensions. That is, it produces a web in which the fibers are disposed in more nearly parallel relationship than in the cotton webs customarily made by a picker. At the same time the rate of production compares favorably with that of commercial cotton pickers.

While I have herein shown and described a preferred embodiment of my invention, it will be understood that the invention may be embodied in other forms without departing from the spirit orscope thereof.

Having thus described my invention, what I desire to claim as new is z 1. In a textile fiber picking machine, the compicking point, whereby said current of air created by said blower will sweep across the top of the beater and assist in discharging the cotton fiber from the pins of the beater as said pins swing through the upper parts of their paths of revolution, the space in said casing above the picking point affording anunobstructed .path for the flow of said air current.

4. A textile fiber picking machine according to preceding claim 3,'including a substantially continuous shield positioned under said beater close to the circumferential surface thereof and exheater and so positioned with reference thereto that the space between the beater and the shield gradually narrows from the region at the rearward side of the beater toward the fiber picking zone.

6. A machine according to preceding claim 3, in which the pins of said beater have bullet nose ends and a large percentage of said pins are so echeloned or staggered that the path of travel of each of them overlaps but does not register with those of pins immediately in front of and behind it.

FRED A. CONLEY. 

